Helmuth Bott's Porsche 959

[John Schaefer]

Thought some of you might find this video interesting...

Helmuth Bott's Porsche 959

... and share some additional info or stories about these special prototypes.

BR,
John

[86 911 Targa]

Originally Posted by John Schaefer

Thought some of you might find this video interesting...

Helmuth Bott's Porsche 959

... and share some additional info or stories about these special prototypes.

BR,
John

We met Peter Schutz along with a 959 ride during a Weissach tour in 1986.

I'll never forget that ride.

[fryardds]

Hi John,

Thanks for posting the link to this cool video. I didn't realise you guys had this car in the Brumo's collection.

I can share a few interesting photos and stories to this. The original owners of my '71S became very close friends with Helmuth and Doris Bott. Bob W was an engineering prof at the Univ. of IL. During his career he would often work at Porsche (mostly Weissach) on special projects during his sabaticals. They ordered the '71, to be delivered at the Factory in Jan. '71. He presented a technical paper to the engineering staff the day he picked up the car. At that presentation he met Helmuth and thus began a lifelong friendship.

Here are several photos Bob scanned (sorry they are so small) and sent me over the years. Here is Bob's description of the first photo, "a picture from 1989 of me with Luis Ruf and Helmuth Bott. We spent most of the day driving some of Luis' cars including the Yellow Bird CTR in the picture. Luis sold 30 some and claimed 475 Hp. It set the world record for a production in 1987 at 211 mph. The problem is you can not make 211 mph. on 475 Hp. so I asked Luis and he said " well I don't like to get into Hp. claims with other people but he showed me the dyno test results for the engines and they were 529 Hp. !!!"

The caption for the second series of photos, "Helmuth with his 959 and his 1927 M-B Diesel taxi. Posing with his 959 before going for drive. I had driven over in a RUF BTR and we went for a couple of hour test drive changing back and forth. I started out driving the 959."

The last photos shows his study in their summer home. In the case are wind tunnel models of a few cars you might recognize.

[motogman]

A couple of years ago, by chance, I meet H. Botts grandson, Daniel, in the Porsche stand at the Frankfort autoshow. We were discussing some old stores (bits of which are told above) and Daniel asked which 959 had been on the drive, the red one or the silver one.

Here are another picture of Helmuth's silver 959.



This from John Goriup's very impressive effort to post a "Porsche Picture of the Day" in 2011 on the Early S site (6/18/11). Here is a excerp of his post for that day on the 959...

"There's not another road-going sports car from Zuffenhausen which elicits more heated pro & con arguments than the Porsche 959. Not sure it really matters in the end, because only 337 were ever produced, sales worldwide were necessarily limited as they were very expensive at U.S.$ 225,000 list price when finally brought to market in '87, (which Porsche claims was about half of what each car actually cost to produce), and they weren't legally importable into the US until the federal government relaxed their certification requirements in '99 ( initially the law called for 4 units to be crash-tested ).

In '80, while Porsche was trying to recover from their mis-adventure of attempting to discontinue the 911 and replace it with a variety of water-cooled "ordinary" sports cars, Head of Engineering & Development, Helmut Bott saw the newly released FIA rules governing Group B rally cars as his chance to use the new World Rally Championship rules as the perfect arena to continue developing the 911 for the future. With new CEO Peter Schutz's enthusiastic blessings, he set out on the 959 project to learn, incorporate, evaluate and adopt the latest technologies from a variety of disciplines, electronic, materials, aerodynamics, etc. for potential use in yet-to-come future 911 projects.

For power, the motor chosen was a "Moby Dick" derived 2.85 liter sequentially twin-turbo-charged flat six cyl. with water-cooled 4-valve heads developing approx. 445 HP driving into a six-speed transmission with the PSK four-wheel drive system. PSK ( Porsche Steuer Kupplung ) translates directly to "Porsche steering Clutch", but actually has nothing to do with steering the car, rather, refers to the systems continuous ability to "steer" ( as in - to direct ) variable amounts of torque to the front or rear wheels.

Most importantly, since the entire 959 project proved to be an immensely useful treasure trove of newly learned research information in the latest developing technologies, it enabled Porsche to bring an entire generation of new, high-performance 911 variants utilizing direct 959 technology to its clients with greater utility, lower costs and greater practical usability to its mass produced road cars."


So the obvious question is... Where is Helmuth Bott's RED 959?

[GH85Carrera]

He came to talk to us in Oklahoma City for War Bonnet Tech session. He was a fascinating guy. In one question and answer session he said driving that 959 never got a second notice from the German locals. When he drove his Model T he had all the locals waving and giving thumbs up.

He also had a 914 with the 908 engine in it. He said that was a fun sleeper. As long as the other guy did not hear the engine.

[Nine9six]

The 959 just stirs my sole...Always has, alway will.

[weseeeee]

Great link, I enjoyed the video. Thanks for posting.

[violin959]

So the obvious question is... Where is Helmuth Bott's RED 959?[/QUOTE]

There is a picture of Mr. Bott in a red 959 prototype. I believe this car was destroyed by Herbert von Karajan. The Conductor did own a 959 but not this one.